Warriors Game Day: Storylines And Themes From Golden State’s Game 1 Win vs Los Angeles Clippers (Photo: Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE/Getty via SFgate.com/Yahoo, on @letsgowarriors Instagram account)
STAPLES CENTER, LOS ANGELES, CA — As with any NBA Playoff game, plays get magnified and story lines develop. First, a little recap from the AP…
Beth Harris from the Associated Press:
Griffin was limited to four minutes in the first half. He got his first two fouls 36 seconds apart early in the opening quarter and his third at 11:21 of the second.
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“I tried to keep him from getting easy buckets in transition, which fuels him,” Lee said.
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A three-minute stretch of the third produced a torrent of offense, with each team answering the other’s baskets. Redick and Thompson dueled from 3-point range and then Redick and Curry exchanged short jumpers with neither team leading by more than three.
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The Warriors pulled away on a 14-6 run that ended the third with them leading 87-79.
Here are the themes from the Bay Area’s beatwriters from yesterday…
The Warriors being the better team
Scott Ostler of the San Francisco Chronicle:
The score after the opening round: China Shop 1, Bull 0.
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In what is guaranteed to be an emotional roller coaster of a series, the big question now is: When will Mark Jackson fire Joe Lacob?
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Jackson is said to be on team owner Lacob’s hot seat for strategic deficiencies and assorted personality quirks. But when an underdog team missing its nails-tough starting center can walk into the Clippers’ arena filled with sound and fury, survive one of the worst opening five minutes of playoff ball ever and hold on for a 109-105 win in the opening game of the series, it’s hard to deny that something special is going on here.
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Not to get too sappy, but the Warriors are now getting fan mail from the Little Engine That Could.
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Faced with 19,000-plus hyper Clipper fans, in a massive arena where the electro-din is as phony and overdone as a starlet’s chest, the Warriors ignored the lasers and haters and played solid, emotionally charged ball.
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In this game, at least, the Warriors won because they were the better team. When the Clippers played it smart by ganging up on supershooter Stephen Curry, absolutely a smart strategy, Curry and the Warriors beat it by doing the two essential things they must do when teams gang-guard Curry:
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— They got the ball to Thompson, who scored 22 points, including 3-for-3 from Threeland in the second half.
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— They zipped the ball around as though it were a game of keep-away, finding the open man.
Coach Jackson’s ability to put a chip on the Warriors’ shoulder
Tim Kawakami of the San Jose Mercury News:
And they entered this series understanding that few experts gave them a shot against Chris Paul, Blake Griffin and the third-seeded Clippers, who happen to be the Warriors’ most detested rival.
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Which is exactly what Jackson wanted his players to hear and feel.
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Is there talk that Jackson’s job is in jeopardy? Great, let’s hear more please.
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Due to the Bogut injury, are his players at a disadvantage at several positions? Wonderful, keep talking.
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Is Staples Center primed for a Clippers triumph, starting with an all-out assault on the Warriors in the first minutes?
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Jackson and his players live for that stuff and define themselves by punching back at it.
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The Warriors survived the Clippers’ ferocious 12-1 start, figured out how to beat the Clippers’ double-team clamping of Stephen Curry, and just outlasted and outworked anybody who came up against them.
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It wasn’t a beautiful game — the Warriors committed 21 turnovers, the Clippers 17 — but that’s not really who the Warriors are any more.
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This was a game for Draymond Green’s bumps and screams, a game for Klay Thompson to step into several momentous end-game shots, and for Harrison Barnes to momentarily reverse an entire season’s worth of disappointing play.
Mark Jackson out-coaching Doc Rivers
Monte Poole of CSN Bay Area:
Jackson and his team went out and delivered an impressive and rousing opening statement in what amounts to a trial presided over by Warriors CEO Joe Lacob.
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Jackson conducted a virtual clinic in calculated strategy, in-game planning and intuitive coaching, leading the No. 6 seed Warriors to a 109-105 win over the third-seeded Clippers in Game 1 of their first-round Western Conference playoff series.
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But the most glaring is that Jackson had a much better game than Rivers. Whereas Jackson beautifully massaged his roster, Rivers made at least two rotation gaffes that invite second-guessing.
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By playing guard J.J. Redick too little and center DeAndre Jordan too much, Rivers essentially cleared a path for the Warriors to swipe a road win.
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Redick was invisible when guarded by Andre Iguodala but invincible when Iguodala was off the floor. Redick’s 12-point third quarter, on 5-of-5 shooting, was a direct result of Iguodala being benched with foul trouble.
Andre Iguodala saying the Warriors want to save their coach
Steve Berman of Bay Area Sports Guy:
“I was watching SportsCenter the other night. And they said our coach was going to be gone. I think Stephen A. Smith said it,” said Andre Iguodala.
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“We’re trying to save our coach.”
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“(Jackson) did an excellent job of subbing on the fly. I heard somebody try to say a knock of his is x’s and o’s or his rotations. Tonight it was almost perfect,” Iguodala said.
The Warriors defending when their two best defenders were out
Rusty Simmons of the San Francisco Chronicle:
With Andrew Bogut sitting somewhere in the Bay Area with a broken rib and Andre Iguodala sitting on the bench after fouling out Saturday, the sixth-seeded Warriors somehow managed to upset the No. 3 Clippers on Saturday afternoon.
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As their two best defenders looked on helplessly, the Warriors shut out the high-octane Clippers for the final 90 seconds of Game 1 and preserved a 109-105 victory to steal home-court advantage in the best-of-seven, first-round series.
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Barnes blocked Chris Paul’s point-blank shot with 1:49 remaining and hit a three-pointer at the other end for a 105-103 lead. After Griffin tied it with two free throws at the 1:31 mark, the Clippers never scored again – going 0-for-3 from the floor, committing two turnovers and seeing Chris Paul, an 86 percent free-throw shooter, miss two foul shots in an inexplicable closing for the league’s best point guard.
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“I don’t know,” Paul said. “I’ll look at it, I promise you that. As soon as I get home, I’ll look at it. We all just have to be ready.”
Draymond Green‘s defense of Chris Paul helping the Warriors be resilient
Lowell Cohn of the Santa Rosa Press Democrat:
Draymond Green told himself he could get this guy. This guy was Chris Paul, the Clippers’ All-Star point guard.
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Only 18.9 seconds remained in the first playoff game between the Warriors and Clippers and Paul had the ball in the Clippers’ front court with the Warriors up by two. Paul was doing his thing, juking and duking, looking cool, setting up the game-tying basket, a mid-range jumper you knew he’d make. Swish.
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But Green thought he could get him. He told himself this was the crisis moment of the game and Paul was “the guy” and Paul would want to make the play. It was Green’s job, he told himself, to worry Paul, to bother him, to annoy him, although the words Green later used were “throw him out of his rhythm.”
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That’s exactly what Green did. He made Paul, so sure-handed, get into a contorted posture, an unnatural posture, and throw the ball out of bounds. Paul pretended Green fouled him. Did the grimace face as if Green had punctured his gut with a six-inch shiv. Paul does a lot of that. The refs checked the play on the courtside monitor and said Green played clean. He did. He ruined Paul’s rhythm, ruined his play, ruined the Clippers’ comeback. The Clippers never scored another point. And the Warriors won 109-105.
Fouls, fouls, fouls
Sarah Todd of SFBay.ca:
Speaking of the foul game. Fouls, fouls and more fouls.
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In the first nine minutes Andre Iguodala had racked up three fouls — his first two in a four-second span — while Blake Griffin and David Lee sat with two a piece.
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…By halftime Iguodala, Lee and Griffin had added another foul to their own count and Marreese Spieghts was called for three in the second quarter alone.
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Clippers head coach Doc Rivers said he thought the hype about the drama between the two teams played into how the game was officiated:
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“I thought all the hype absolutely had an impact on how the game was called, there’s no doubt about that. A lot of tight touch fouls.”
The growth and maturity of Klay Thompson
Marcus Thompson of the San Jose Mercury News:
…He’s had big playoff games before, but this one showed the maturation he’s experienced as a player this season.
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He had a rough shooting night but still was the puzzle the Clippers couldn’t decipher. It was a glimpse of how good he’s gotten as he continues to piece his game together.
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“I’m a lot more comfortable in my third year,” Thompson said. “I feel like I made a big jump this year. I’m being more composed, taking better shots, getting to the rim more.”
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In keeping with the growth he’s shown throughout the season, his contributions were multifaceted. He got to the rim off the dribble. He made the double team pay by making the smart pass. He hit big shots when the Warriors had to have a basket.
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Simply, Thompson was the Warriors’ playmaker down the stretch Saturday.
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He finished with a game-high 22 points to go with seven rebounds and five assists. He had six points and three assists in the fourth quarter. And the whole time he chased around Chris Paul.
Reserve center Hilton Armstrong contributing to the Warriors’ counter-strategy
Diamond Leung of the Bay Area News Group:
The Los Angeles Clippers subjected Stephen Curry to traps in order to defend the pick-and-roll offense, with two defenders often hounding the Warriors’ leading scorer.
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But the Warriors countered that strategy, sending a big man to be Curry’s outlet and often creating two-on-one advantages that led to dunks in Golden State’s 109-105 upset victory in Game 1.
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According to the Warriors’ Andre Iguodala, the credit for that strategy goes to one of the last men off the bench in Hilton Armstrong. Given an opportunity to play in Wednesday’s meaningless finale against Denver, Armstrong put the idea into practice and found success.
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“You always hear about somebody having a great speech saying no matter who you are, whether you’re playing or not playing, you can make a difference. It’s like, ‘Yeah, right,’ ” Iguodala said.
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“But in that instance, it’s true. It might take a guy from the D League. You never know. You can come up, get an opportunity, you might show something you never knew you had, and it might help us get to the next level.”
Did Klay Thompson see the “Shut Up Klay” t-shirt?
Berman again on Bay Area Sports Guy:
“I saw it,” Thompson said. “That’s alright, that’s basketball. That makes it more fun. We’re in the opposing team’s building, so you’ve got to expect stuff like that, hearing all the expletives and whatnot.”
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Thompson had the final word, as he had a team-leading 22 points, several threes at key moments, seven rebounds and five assists. He found the ball in his hands as the final buzzer sounded, and he spiked it on the hardwood. It was a rare display of emotion from Thompson, one he wishes he could bottle up and savor.
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“The best feeling. I wish I could go back out there and do it again. After a hard fought win like that, I wish I could’ve kicked the ball, just to get my emotions out. It felt great.”
On Harrison Barnes
Simmons of the San Francisco Chronicle:
After Los Angeles had gone on a 15-4 run to take a 103-102 lead inside of two minutes to play, Barnes ruined the Clippers’ three-on-one fastbreak by blocking Chris Paul’s point-blank shot. The second-year forward then knocked down a three-pointer that gave the Warriors a 105-103 lead.
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The Warriors never trailed again.
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“I thought that was the biggest play,” Paul said. “We could have went up three, but instead Harrison Barnes hits a shot and they go up two.”
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Barnes said he didn’t even consider the time and score of the game when he caught the pass from Klay Thompson and calmly launched the three-pointer. That’s a great sign from a player who struggled with consistency and overthought things during the regular season.
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“One of my goals coming into the season was consistency,” Barnes said. “I wasn’t worried about the big nights or going against OKC or the Spurs. I was worried about all of the games in between those. I obviously wasn’t able to do that as much as I wanted this season. But it’s the playoffs now, and I know that I’ll be locked and loaded.”
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